Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [3]
Lastly, thanks to all my friends and family, my wife Camilla who has been so supportive over the last year, and especially my late mother for all her love and encouragement.
March, 2010
Chapter 1. Photoshop Fundamentals
Let's begin by looking at some of the essentials of working with Photoshop, such as how to install the program, the Photoshop interface and what all the different tools and panels do, as well as introducing the Bridge and Camera Raw interfaces.
A lot of big changes were made to the Photoshop CS4 interface and this has continued to be the case with Photoshop CS5. Even if you are already quite familiar with how Photoshop works, or have read previous editions of this book, I would still recommend you begin by reading through this chapter first to learn about some of the things that are new in this latest version of Photoshop. You can also use this chapter as a reference as you work through the remainder of the book.
An overview of the book chapters
Chapter 1: Photoshop fundamentals
The chapter you are reading introduces the Photoshop interface and some of the main program features such as the tools, panels, layers, Camera Raw, plus Bridge image browsing. This provides a general introduction to how Photoshop works.
Chapter 2: Configuring Photoshop
This chapter contains a guide to all the Photoshop preference panels, how to optimize your computer system, how much RAM is required, and what sort of accessories you are likely to find useful.
Chapter 3: Camera Raw image processing
If you shoot digitally, you will most likely want to shoot in raw mode. This chapter provides essential reading on how to prepare digital raw images before opening them in Photoshop and includes information on all the new Camera Raw 6.0 features.
Chapter 4: Sharpening and noise reduction
This chapter is about how to use the sharpening and noise reduction sliders in Camera Raw to apply capture sharpening to your photographs, before they are edited in Photoshop. I also discuss some of the sharpening and noise reduction tools and techniques that are available in Photoshop.
Chapter 5: Image editing essentials
This chapter focuses on the general Photoshop image editing controls such as how to set the levels to improve the tone contrast and how to adjust the colors. The foundation skills taught in this chapter are essential learning whether or not you choose to process your photos in Camera Raw first.
Chapter 6: Black and white
This chapter shows you how to create optimum black and white conversions from a color original and how to reproduce traditional darkroom techniques.
Chapter 7: Extending the dynamic range
In this chapter I discuss high dynamic range image editing and other techniques that can be used to extend the dynamic range of images that have been captured digitally. This should be of particular interest now that the Merge to HDR tools in Photoshop CS5 have been significantly improved.
Chapter 8: Image retouching
This chapter shows various retouching techniques and strategies for removing blemishes and other objects from a photograph.
Chapter 9: Layers, selections and masking
This chapter focuses on the use of channels, layers, layer masks and paths and how these can be used to seamlessly mask different image elements. Also included is a section on working with the new improved Refine Edge command as well as a look at the new Puppet Warp feature in Photoshop CS5.
Chapter 10: Essential filters for photo